


Waiting for a Bus

by Bluewolf458



Category: The Sentinel
Genre: Gen, Sentinel Bingo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-18
Updated: 2018-03-18
Packaged: 2019-04-04 08:02:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 627
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14015856
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bluewolf458/pseuds/Bluewolf458
Summary: Travelling from Portand to Cascade, Blair has to change buses





	Waiting for a Bus

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the 2018 Sentinel Bingo prompt 'station'

Waiting for a Bus

by Bluewolf

 _Never again!_ Blair told himself for the umpteenth time.

A few hours earlier, it had seemed such a good idea; now he knew it wasn't.

On the recommendation of Eli Stoddard, he had been invited to Reed College in Portland, Oregon, to do a guest lecture on the Kombai of Irian Jaya. The lecture had been very well received, to the point where he knew that if he was unable to get a position at Rainier once he had his PhD - and knowing Chancellor Edwards' view of him, it seemed more than likely that she would refuse to consider any application he made for a permanent position there - Reed would welcome him.

Though that would mean leaving Jim...

He had flown to Portland, but coming back he had decided to travel by bus.

If he had been able to get a return ticket on the plane, he would have done so - but all the seats on the planes traveling north were, for some reason, fully booked and he would have had to stay in Portland for three extra days until he could get a flight. So he had decided to travel home by bus, and the first available one had been an overnight one with a change at Seattle.

He had reached Seattle just after 2:30 - knowing that his connection to Cascade didn't leave Seattle until 8. But a five and a half hour wait was nothing to worry about; he could relax in the waiting room with a cup of coffee and catch up on some reading.

Yeah, right.

He was one of several passengers waiting for a connection... and the waiting room was closed. There was a light on - it was being cleaned. Okay, fair enough. Maybe half an hour and it would be opened? Meanwhile, there were benches outside it, but although the area was roofed, there was only the one wall that separated the bus stances from the waiting room, ticket office, cafe etc; and this early in the year there was a cold wind blowing.

He took a seat - as did the other passengers who were waiting. Another bus arrived and two or three more passengers joined the ones outside the waiting room.

And then the light in the waiting room went off. Moments later, the two women who had been cleaning the room came out and closed the door firmly behind them.

Someone said, "Excuse me - can't we get in?"

One of the women gave a resigned sigh - it was clear that she was asked this every night. "I'm sorry; it's a directive from the management. Some months ago the station manager realized that there were some homeless people coming in at night, as if they were waiting for a bus. So now nobody is allowed in between 10pm and 7am."

"Couldn't someone be assigned to stay there overnight and check that anyone going in had a valid ticket?" Blair asked.

She gave him a rueful smile. "You'd think that would be the obvious thing to do, but he says his budget won't cover it."

There was some hostile muttering, but Blair said clearly, "Not your fault. But I'm very tempted to write a letter of complaint to the man."

"I'm sorry," she said again, and the two women headed off.

But it was cold, and getting steadily colder, and Blair was beginning to wish he had just waited the three days for the first available plane.

As he settled back to wait for 7am, he repeated what had become his mantra for the night.

Never again was he travelling on an overnight bus where there was a change of buses and a delay of several hours before he could board the second bus.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> I have no idea what the bus station in Seattle is like; I just wanted a situation where Blair was cold and couldn't do anything about it.


End file.
